Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson
By Rev. John Jackson
As the celebration of Easter/Resurrection Sunday fades from view, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the pivotal role that the women played in Jesus’ earthly life, death, burial, and Resurrection.
First the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is recorded in all four of the gospels. When a text of scripture is recorded in more than one gospel, that means that the episode is pretty important. When an episode is recorded in all four gospels that indicates that the episode is of extreme importance to the faith.
It is not just that the death, burial and resurrection are recorded in all four gospels but that all four gospel writers record that the women were last at the cross, first at the tomb and were the first to preach the resurrection.
Black women were always essential to the earthly ministry of Jesus. There was Mary Magdalene, who, according to the gospel of Luke, had seven demons removed from her. John says she waited at the tomb looking for the body of Jesus.
There was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who, according to the Gospel of John, anointed Jesus’ feet with a very expensive perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. And then there was the unnamed woman that Jesus met at Jacob’s well in Samaria, recorded in John’s fourth chapter. Jesus met this woman when she originally came to the well at noon with her water jar to get fresh water.
Jesus used the moment to have a conversation with her about what he called “living water.” During that conversation under a hot Samaria sun, Jesus explained who the true disciples of God were and who would worship God in spirit and in truth. When Jesus finished his long conversation with this woman, she dropped her water jar, went back to town, and began preaching about Jesus, saying, “Come see a man…”
She preached so powerfully that people came to Jesus because of her proclamation about Jesus. Women have always played an essential role in Jesus’ peasant movement. And that again is why the fact that all four gospels record that the women were courageous enough and devoted enough to Jesus to stand at the foot of the cross while he died, were the first to the tomb to honor him with a proper burial and then were given the honor to be the first to proclaim that “he is risen,” is of sacred importance.
This fact speaks to the patriarchal, sexist and toxic masculinity operating in the society that Jesus and the women were a part of and how God, through Jesus, rejected this minimizing of the importance of women to God’s will and God’s work.
God, through Jesus’ earthly ministry, included Black women in major roles. The African Apostle Paul even commends the ministry of several women in the book of Romans. Paul cites Priscila, who was co-pastor with her husband Aquila. He references Phoebe, who was a deacon, not a deaconess. He references Junia, who was an apostle before he was.
The ministry of Jesus and how he cherished and valued the ministry work of women in leadership roles contradicts and censures the many people who chose to vote for our present day Barrabass who is perhaps the least qualified to occupy the Oval Office over the most qualified person to ever run for the highest office because she was a Black woman. The ministry of Jesus has a cautionary word for many today who diminish the value of women, especially Black women, in ministry or any leadership position.
The women in Jesus’ day were Black African Jewish women who were really the backbone of his earthly ministry, just like Black women today who are the backbone of the Black church and the most loyal bloc of the Democratic party here in the U.S. As the iconic book title by Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes says, “If It Wasn’t for the Women…”
Jesus affirms Black women in ministry. Whether they are preachers, pastors, theologians, or scholars in the academy, they are chosen by God to deliver the word of God.
If we say that the bible is our primary faith document and that Jesus is Lord of the church then women by Jesus’ example have just as much right to pastor and preach the gospel as any man. If God entrusted the preaching of the resurrection to women, then women are well able to preach the good news to us today.
Be well, Be authentic and Stay Woke! Uhuru Sassa!
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.